Men's basketball: CU Buffs need to pick up defensive effort

Buffs hit road for Fresno State on Wednesday

Colorado forward Josh Scott (40) looks for a teammate to pass to under the arms of a couple of Kansas defenders Saturday in Lawrence.
(
Charlie Riedel
)

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LAWRENCE, Kan. -- It was homecoming hell for Tad Boyle.

The former Kansas player suffered his worst defeat as Colorado's head coach as the No. 9 Jayhawks dominated the Buffs 90-54 on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

It was CU's most lopsided loss since Jeff Bzdelik's Air Force team humiliated Ricardo Patton's Buffs 84-46 on Nov. 18, 2006.

Two weeks ago, Boyle's team was ranked No. 19 in the polls. Now the Buffs (7-2) must regroup and find a way to win a road game on Wednesday night at Fresno State (8 p.m., no television).

CU needs to pack its defense for this trip.

After a 6-0 start to the season, the Buffs allowed Wyoming to score 50 points on 51.9 percent shooting in the second half of a 76-69 loss on Dec. 1 in Laramie.

KU made 34 of 62 field goals (54.8 percent), including 24 layups, with 10 different players getting into the scoring column Saturday.

"I know I'm going to sound like a broken record, but it all comes down to defense," CU sophomore point guard Spencer Dinwiddie said after finishing with four points and a sprained ankle. "It wasn't like they were hitting contested 3's. If they were making contested 3's and they beat us by 30, then you have to shake their hand and be like, 'Y'all killed us.'

"They were dunking on us, actually humiliating us. There is really nothing else to say."

Boyle's pregame strategy was to clog the paint, take away the Jayhawks' transition game and make them shoot 3-pointers.

KU finished with 46 points in the paint, 20 points on the fast break, and eight 3-pointers. The Jayhawks (7-1) hit nine of their first 11 shots to take an 18-3 lead and never looked back.

Buffs junior forward Andre Roberson did finish with 11 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. That effort wasn't enough to make CU, which trailed by as many as 42 points, competitive against a top-10 team in one of the toughest venues in the country.

"We have to keep our composure and play as a team defensively," said freshman guard Xavier Talton, who finally gave Boyle something to build on defensively by taking a couple of charges late in the game. "We can't just leave it up to Andre to rebound and defend, it takes five guys."

KU head coach Bill Self said Boyle has built a CU team with some players he would like to have in Lawrence.

One of those players is Josh Scott, the Buffs' 6-11 true freshman who scored 19 points on 9-for-15 shooting. KU 7-foot center Jeff Withey countered with eight points, seven rebounds and five blocks in only 23 minutes.

"I think Josh took it to Withey and took it as a personal challenge," Dinwiddie said. "He did his thing for the most part, which may be the lone bright spot of the game. I think he handled himself well on both ends."

Scott dismissed his performance and made it clear that he's already tired of losing outside the friendly confines of the Coors Events Center, even though the Buffs have only played two true road games.

"I think we learned that we need to play better on the road. I mean, it was embarrassing," Scott said. "I know me personally, I learned about playing in an environment like this. I don't ever want to feel like this again, and I think the rest of our team feels like this, too."

Wednesday's game against the Bulldogs (5-4), who lost 59-50 on Sunday at Washington State, will be CU's final opportunity to notch a non-conference road win prior to the Pac-12 opener at Arizona on Jan. 3.

"We've got young guys and hopefully they grew up a little bit and our players understand how far our program has to go," Boyle said. "We have a long way to go."

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